CORVALLIS -- Every offensive football player fancies himself a receiver according to Oregon State coach Mike Riley, so even though Kyle DeVan played offensive line in college, coaching tight ends works for the former center.

Pretty much anyone can be taught to catch a pass, Riley reasons. It's the blocking part that DeVan can pass on.

DeVan, a former offensive line standout for the Beavers who started 38 consecutive games from 2004-2007, returned to his alma mater in the winter and was promptly assigned to tight ends, a position he knew little about. But clearly something he's doing is working: Already this season junior Connor Hamlett and sophomores Caleb Smith and Kellen Clute have combined for 37 catches, 336 yards and seven touchdowns. If Oregon State (4-1, 2-0 Pac-12) continues its aerial assault, this tight end group is poised to break the program record for tight end receptions in a season (70), set in 2004.

"They give us a lot of versatility," Riley says. "They can pass protect, run block and make some plays downfield. I hope we keep expanding that group, because they can be hard to contend with defensively: Big hands, big targets."

So what if their position coach never caught a pass?

"Actually, I scored two touchdowns in the NFL," boasts DeVan. "They were in practice, but that's OK. I tell my guys that all the time: I scored two touchdowns … on the scout team."

For awhile, DeVan just couldn't quit the NFL. After getting released by the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 10 of the 2011 season, DeVan spent the whole offseason trying to find a "real" job. But nothing surfaced and when he heard Riley had an opening for a graduate assistant working with the offensive line, he signed up. When the Tennessee Titans came calling midway through the 2012 season, he couldn't pass it up.

But after playing in three games of the Titans' season, and starting one, DeVan decided it was time for something new, but not completely different. He figured he was in the mastery level of football, so why start at the junior high level of something like business?

"I spent my whole life trying to perfect the game of football," DeVan said. "Why go learn something different when I could just teach the stuff I learned?"

In the winter, when former tight ends coach Jay Locey was promoted to Chief of Staff to take over some administrative duties, Riley had an opening. DeVan accepted, then went to work.

"There has been some, uh, trial by fire," DeVan laughed. "I didn't realize how big our offense is. The playbook is HUGE. We're doing stuff with different formations and personnel, and then sometimes we do similar stuff with different personnel. I've told (offensive coordinator) Danny (Langsdorf), sometimes it feels like Chinese to me. They're masters of it, and I'm a beginner.

"But as a young coach, getting my own position group is incredible. I've become a student of the game again."

These Oregon State tight ends, DeVan says, are just like any tight ends: They want to be receivers, which means he has to harp on them to remember half their job is to catch, and the other half is to block.

"Within the offense, we discuss the big picture but (blocking) technique is no different for a guard, center or tight end," DeVan said. "I've taught them a lot of tricks, things I learned that you might not understand if you didn't play the position."

Hamlett and the other tight ends have adjusted well to DeVan's engaging, goofy personality, calling him "a players' coach."

"He's fun, but he gets down to business and he really gets on us sometimes," Hamlett said. "Locey was a details guy and he taught us a lot of the little things. Most of us were more of receivers in high school, so route-running comes naturally. Then Kyle came along and taught us how to block."

After a crash course in coaching a position he didn't play, DeVan now understands the offense well enough to watch game replays without Langsdorf or Riley in the room. He can break down what the tight ends are doing wrong or right, and occasionally jots some notes for offensive line coach Mike Cavanaugh, too. And now that he knows the tight end position, how hard could it be, really, to coach something else?

"I could handle running backs, because what they do is similar to us," DeVan said. "I could coach receivers, but they're too skinny and they just want to run around all the time -- I don't have much in common with them.